The Armed Republic of Hardwater is a colossal, efficient nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, barren, inhospitable landscape, and punitive income tax rates. The cynical, devout population of 2.809 billion Hardwatians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The enormous, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Industry. The average income tax rate is 69.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The thriving Hardwatian economy, worth 182 trillion crosses a year, is led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Basket Weaving, Uranium Mining, and Woodchip Exports. Black market activity is notable. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 64,881 crosses, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.0 times as much as the poorest.

An epidemic of unpopped kernels causes movie goers to gnash their teeth, colonists who were promised new lands find only war-torn devastation, Hardwater City spends billions upgrading public transport, and sociologists ponder how baby-napped ethnic minority 'runaways' could have gone so bad so soon. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hardwater's national animal is the siberian cat, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Hardwater is ranked 42,478^th in the world and 4^th in Unsavory Group of Bad Hombres for Highest Average Tax Rates, with 69.87 Effective Tax Rate.